As a sniper with the elite Massachusetts State Police SWAT Team, Bobby Dodge saved a woman and her young son by shooting her armed husband. But vicious rumors begin to circulate the next morning when Bobby loses his gun and his privileges. It turns out the dead man was the son of a prominent Boston judge and had accused his wife of poisoning their son.

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Publisher's Summary

As a sniper with the elite Massachusetts State Police SWAT Team, Bobby Dodge saved a woman and her young son by shooting her armed husband. But vicious rumors begin to circulate the next morning when Bobby loses his gun and his privileges. It turns out the dead man was the son of a prominent Boston judge and had accused his wife of poisoning their son. Facing awkward stares and a crippling wrongful death lawsuit, Bobby begins his own investigation into the fateful shooting, and a fight to reclaim the life he holds dear. As the trail takes him into a twisted minefield of sordid wealth and family secrets, he is learning that nothing, and no one, is what they seem.

. . . when I say that this audiobook was a delight. I am a fan of Gardner's and she does not disappoint on this book. I wasn't very impressed with the reader, but definitely like the book. Also, if you haven't read it yet, do read The Killing Hour and The Next Accident, Killing Hour is outstanding five stars!

Audible has opened up a whole new world of reading that I could not make work in the traditional page turning world. I am on a mission to listen to a wide variety of adventures, mysteries, thrillers, classics, etc. Thank you Audible!

I found this book to be quite enjoyable. The plot has many twists and turns, as well as fast paced action. I would have rated this book higher, but the narrator prevented it. Overall she does an alright job and I feel the book is still an entertaining read. The biggest problem I had was the fact that many of her character voices sound the same. This often made it difficult to know who was saying what, especially when multiple male characters were speaking. It also seemed odd to me to have a female narrator for a book with a male (Bobby Dakota) being the primary character. There is a fair amount of the story that allows the reader to hear Bobby's thoughts and internal dialog, but with the voice being female I found that it just seemed weird at times. I would recommend you listen to the audio sample and if the narration does not turn you off put the book in your cart.

I thought that this was a great read! The characters are complex and well developed, the story line has enough twists to keep the reader guessing! I thought the ending was a bit open but I can understand why it was ended that way. All in all a great book! I too have read The Killing Hour and The Next Accident and loved them both! Anna Fields did a great job reading the book as well!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No, the voice actor did such a horrible job personifying characters that I couldn't wait for the recording to be over. I contemplated just reading it, but since I had already purchased the audio book, I just kept going with it.

What did you like best about this story?

The story was great and is very necessary to read the follow up "HIDE." Great plot twists.

How could the performance have been better?

The performer made Bobby Dodge sound like 65 year old moron from South Boston. I understand that she was trying to lay on the Boston accent thick, but it came along with making him sound like a big dumb oaf throughout, and having read other Lisa Gardner books, I know that this was not the intention for Bobby Dodge. She also made D.D. sound much too prissy compared to every other audiobook performer I have heard. I am so glad that they changed performers in the other books.

Having purchased countless books from Audible, I should know by now that when there are more than a couple of reviews stating the narration is awful on a book, I should pay attention! I LOVE Lisa Gardner, was hoping for the best, despite previous reviews stating the narration by Anna Fields is awful. Sadly, I have to agree. Her monotone, deadpan voice ruined any desire to keep listening before the second chapter was half-way through. I really wanted and tried to take in the story, but my mind kept wandering, as her voice nearly put me to sleep. I've purchased other Lisa Gardner audible books, narrated by other people, which are awesome, riveting, fantastic.

I enjoyed this book along with a sequal to it Hide. Since i read these out of order i knew a little of what was happening but she developed the story in great detail so details in Hide did not give the complete story away.

Although I have not finished listening I almost did not buy this audio secondary to the first two reviews. The narrator for the unabridged book is not bad at all. It is difficult for a women to take on men's voices and vice versa. Sometimes the narrator does this in a stereotypic fashion that distracts the listener from the story. This narrator transitions the male and female voices well. Thus far the story is in the usual Lisa Gardner non-stop adrenaline rush.

I like Jack Reacher style characters regardless of setting. Put them in outer space, in modern America, in a military setting, on an alien planet... no worries. Book has non moralistic vigilante-justice? Sign me up!
(oh, I read urban fantasy, soft and hard sci-fi, trashy vampire and zombie novels too)

It's almost a bit too far-fetched. It wasn't so over-the-top that I stopped reading it, but I did roll my eyes more than once.

It's obvious it's a female author. And just as obvious that she took a Feminism 101 course at university at some point in her career. The book has so much feminist rhetoric (a.k.a. - in this case - stereotypes) that it also caused me to roll my eyes.

But, otherwise, the story was quite engaging... it wasn't clear who the good-guy was (or all the bad-guys) until pretty close to the end of the book. In fact, it took the epilogue to finish making sense of who did what, exactly, and why.

All in all, I enjoyed the story and will read more in this series (though if it wasn't for the fact I already knew it was a series book, I wouldn't have been able to tell from the story - it's completely wrapped at the end.) I'm confident that Gardner will tame down her feminist enthusiasm and retain the suspense in the future books.

I don't think there was any swearing, there is no sexual content and it's not graphically violent. I did not like the narration very much. The narrator spoke clearly, but since the majority of the characters were male, she spoke in a lower register for much of the book, and it did not sound natural. I was not able to tell which male character was speaking from her narration alone and had to wait for the "Rocko said" to know who said what most of the time.

I wanted it to be over. Gunshots are heard. Neighbors call the police who surround the house. Inside Jimmy is pointing a gun at his wife Catherine. Bobby is a sniper and member of the police SWAT team. He sees Jimmy’s face change, and he believes Jimmy will shoot, so Bobby shoots and kills Jimmy. Now Jimmy’s father James is suing Bobby. If James wins Bobby goes to jail. If James loses, he will repeatedly appeal because he is wealthy. He can afford to. The problem is that the city and union will not pay Bobby’s legal fees because James is filing suit through a clerk magistrate which is not the normal process. Bobby did what he was trained to do. If he didn’t shoot Jimmy, then he believed Jimmy would have killed Catherine. Now Bobby has to pay $5000 to a defense attorney. I was furious. Policemen should not be forced to pay their own legal feels for following orders and doing their job. I don’t know if this exists in real life, but if it does, then something is very wrong. This part of the plot made me so angry that I had a hard time enjoying the rest. This legal-issue-stress hangs over Bobby until the last few pages of the book.

Was the rest of the story good? Parts of it maybe. Catherine was kidnaped and raped by Richard when she was twelve. When her only child Nathan was born, Catherine had some mental problems and did not appear to be a good mother. The child has been raised by nannies. Nathan is frequently sick and the doctors don’t know why. Some fear it is Münchausen syndrome by proxy, which means the mother is purposely doing things to make the child sick to get attention for herself. For most of the book, the reader wonders if Catherine is good or bad for her son. James is also suing Catherine for custody of Nathan.

Richard has been in jail for twenty-five years. James uses his influence to get Richard released on parole. Someone is now paying Richard to murder people connected to Catherine or the case.

I did not enjoy the characters. I felt anxiety and depression rather than sympathy. I didn’t feel fun anticipation rooting for someone. We don’t know if Catherine is good or bad, but she’s not likeable. James and Richard are too one-dimensional, powerful, and evil. Bobby spends too much time suffering and second guessing himself, wondering if he did the right thing. He was having problems with the concept of killing someone. He talks to a psychiatrist several times about this as well as troubles from his early life. Some of this was ok, but it seemed a bit much. He also did some illogical and stupid things which made him less sympathetic. Regarding the plot, I had questions unanswered at the end. But maybe part of those were necessary. I understand Catherine has some kind of role in the sequel “Hide” which I have not read.

Ending: good guys win.Genre: mystery suspense thriller.

NARRATOR:I did not like the narrator Anna Fields. The voice she used for Bobby and some of the men was so deep that it sounded like a mentally slow person who is groggy and slurring his words. Some of her general third party narration was too sharp and hurried, almost like she was reading a report and not thinking about what she was reading. When talking about a sniper she said “he breathed in, he breathed out.” That phrase should have been read slowly and calmly, yet the narrator’s voice was sharp, staccato, and fast.

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